Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: Antiracist Organizational Development Project

Mar 11

MassBudget is transitioning into an antiracist organization. FMRA worked with MassBudget to co-create a set of practices and policies to help staff bring the values of antiracism to life through their work and behaviors as a team. This project tackled how the organizational strategies and culture can reflect the shift towards becoming an antiracist organization.

GOALS

MassBudget is searching for an alternative operational logic to the command and control / hierarchical model advanced by the dominant White culture. The team recognized the need to actively confront White supremacist characteristics, systems and forces within its own organization. Therefore, the project had several specific goals:

Dismantle elements of White supremacist culture that are present in the organization
Create a leadership structure and design new ways to distribute power through the organization that integrate Black, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander and Indigenous staff
Use tools and develop pilots that empower the team to create internal practices and protocols that are anti-racist and inclusive
Make the practices sticky through facilitated meetings where we all model the behaviors

PROCESS

FMRA assisted with all these objectives and introduced the team to the tools and tactics of Human Centered Design (HCD) and Design Thinking. HCD considers empathy, consensus, and collective decision making as fundamental aspects of good design. It is a qualitative approach where stakeholder interviews are synthesized into team / organizational insights which can drive strategy, process, design, and policy decisions. MassBudget believes that HCD can be valuable not only for the organizational culture but also to better align with the needs and concerns of the communities it works alongside.

TOOLS

Stakeholder Interview - conducted at the beginning of the project with all MassBudget members.

Temperature Check - administered as part of pre-workshop surveys, and reviewed during workshops. For MassBudget, we asked questions to assess two key areas:

1. Understand how the team perceives the progress that the organization is making towards becoming antiracist.

2. Ask the team to assess the capacity of the organization from a behavioral, procedural, and policy perspective to adopt the changes necessary to become an antiracist organization.

Pre-Workshop Survey - administered before workshops. Questions were designed to help us run more productive workshops and discuss results with the group.

Pugh Chart - small groups completed a pugh chart when the organization was working to refine their goals and the specific projects that would support those goals. FMRA used pugh charts as a tool for organization members to prioritize projects and have in-depth discussions amongst themselves.

Small Group Workshop - used workshops as time for group work, teaching concepts and tools related to the organization’s goals, sharing analyses and live polling.

Individual Check-In - provided on an as-need basis; we made ourselves available for people to contact at any time to talk in-depth about questions, concerns, and feedback.

Common Language Glossary - reviewed Elements of White Supremacy together before collectively walking through a diagnostic tool on how the Elements manifest within the organization.

Norms - introduced at the beginning of the project, and reiterated at the start of each meeting.